


just a game (literally)

by bumblelily



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Drabble, Dumb Plot, Kenma is an accidental source of evil, Neko Atsume - Freeform, New trends, Suga is literally me, What even is this this was written at 3AM, daisuga is implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-07
Updated: 2015-12-07
Packaged: 2018-05-05 09:24:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5370146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bumblelily/pseuds/bumblelily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Oh, I’m not tense at all, Suga-san! I’m just a bit annoyed because I haven’t been able to get this one cat for ages and I literally have no more gold fish left, and don’t even get me started on Tubbs-” </p><p>“Wait a second, you lost me at gold fish. Just what exactly are you on about?”</p><p>OR</p><p>For the love of God never let the Karasuno boys play Neko Atsume.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just a game (literally)

It was very clear that Hinata was irritated.

It wasn’t unusual to see Hinata get agitated during class before practise, or even sometimes watch him shuffle on the spot when he was itching to get into a game with the rest of the Karasuno boys. But Sugawara couldn’t help but notice the fact that Hinata was literally _unfocused_ throughout the afternoon, despite Kageyama’s death threats and Tsukishima’s sly but somewhat humorous comments – Hinata would stare at his bag for more than a few seconds, stealing glances at it whenever he had the chance. It wasn’t long after until Daichi had decided to start their break, obviously concerned for Hinata’s level of concentration by the way he crossed his arms and furrowed his brow. Sugawara made his way towards Daichi as the others went to the sides (Hinata practically dived for his bag in tow, almost knocking over Yamaguchi in the process), and gently nudged him in the arm.

“So, I take it you noticed his behaviour, too?” Sugawara asked nonchalantly, smiling at Daichi in a way to show that he was on the same wavelength. Daichi blinked and looked down at Suga, obviously not aware of the concerned expression all over his face.

“Hmm? Oh, sorry, I was just thinking…” Daichi said with a slight chuckle, the pair of them watching Hinata rummaging through his bag and pulling out his phone. Sugawara watched with interest as Hinata stared at his phone with a stern expression. But then Hinata’s expression turned into a scowl, eye twitching and his grip on his phone tightening before violently throwing his phone back into his bag whilst grumbling. Sugawara frowned, glancing up at Daichi who returned the frown to him. Sugawara walked towards Hinata, concerned as to why Hinata was so annoyed out of the blue.

“Hinata, can I ask you asking?” Sugawara asked kindly, sitting next to Hinata. Hinata looked at him, blinking as though he’d only realised that he wasn’t the only one in the gym.

“Oh, sure, Suga-san! What is it?” Hinata asked.

“Well, I was just wondering if you were alright is all?” Sugawara questioned. Hinata nodded at him fervently.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. Why do you ask?” Hinata pondered. Sugawara smiled at him, relieved that nothing major was going on (or at least he hoped nothing major was going on).

“Oh, you know, you seem to be pretty tense today, and seeing that you’ve literally thrown your phone away, I just thought-”

“You’ve not really been focused at all.” Daichi added from behind, to which Kageyama appeared by Hinata with a slight glare.

“You’re being more of a dumbass as usual.” Kageyama added under his breath. But Hinata seemed to have blanked out Daichi and Kageyama, as he kept his eyes on Sugawara and tilted his head to the side innocently. He frowned at the floor for a second before looking at Sugawara with realisation on his face.

“Oh, I’m not tense at all, Suga-san! I’m just a bit annoyed because I haven’t been able to get this one cat for ages and I literally have no more gold fish left, and don’t even get me started on Tubbs-” Hinata babbled suddenly, his expression twisting especially when he brought up Tubbs, but Sugawara tilted his head at him, because he didn’t have the faintest idea what Hinata was talking about.

“Wait a second, you lost me at gold fish. Just what exactly are you on about?” Sugawara asked. Hinata’s cheeks flushed red as he looked down at his feet as a few members of the team seemed to be interested in what had got Hinata babbling.

“There’s this game that Kenma told me about a few weeks ago. You collect cats by leaving them treats and toys and stuff, and then you can take these really cute pictures of them and have your own album, and-”

“Hinata, you have the cat thing too?! Why the hell didn’t you tell me?!” Nishinoya asked as if offended, bouncing towards him with his phone in his hand, to which Hinata positively beamed at him and replied, “You know what I’m talking about?!” excitedly.

“Can someone translate for me please?” Daichi asked, shaking his head slowly whilst looking at the two shortest members with a hopeless expression on his face. Kinoshita and Narita glanced at Ennoshita, who sighed in defeat as he stared at Nishinoya.

“Basically, there’s a game out called _Neko Atsume_ where you have to find different kinds of cats. It starts off fun, but then people get addicted to it eventually. It’s a never ending cat cycle of doom.” Ennoshita said in a grave matter of fact tone, as Nishinoya was showing Hinata something that was making him beg on his knees as to how he was able to get whatever he got. Sugawara felt a small giggle rise up his throat and covered his mouth to muffle it slightly.

“Seriously, what a _ridiculous_ game to get wrapped up in.” Tsukishima said, his expression impossible to read as he stood up and stretched. Yamaguchi raised an eyebrow at him, looking as though he was trying not to snicker.

“Tsukki, you literally started _sulking_ because your favourite cat didn’t visit you for two hours.” Yamaguchi said coolly, drinking from his water bottle and looking away from Tsukishima as Tsukishima scowled at him darkly. Hinata turned his attention to him now, the poor thing, pointing at him in surprise.

“Tsukishima has it too?! Now I have to get Tubbs before he taints him!” Hinata declared.

“That’s not physically possible.” Tsukishima stated.

“Shut up!” Hinata snarled.

“Maybe Tubbs doesn’t want to actually hang out with you, dumbass.” Kageyama snapped.

“You don’t even know what I’m going through, Kageyama!” Hinata snapped back.

“Tsukki does.” Yamaguchi piped.

“Shut up, Yamaguchi.” Tsukishima grumbled.

“I just want to get the one cat that looks like Kiyoko-san.” Tanaka said in a whimsical voice.

“Tanaka, if you have the game I swear I will love you forever.” Nishinoya declared.

“I think it’s time to get to practise, don’t you agree?”  Daichi said in a threatening tone, a dark smile on his face looking as though he was ready to bash heads together. Sugawara stood up and made to usher everyone back to practise, with Hinata a lot more animated than before. Nishinoya had taken it upon himself to natter with Tsukishima about this game, telling him ways of getting different types of cats, and although Tsukishima looked as though he was disinterested, there was a certain glimmer in his eyes when the name ‘Spooky’ was brought into the conversation.

Practise went by quickly after that, with Nishinoya and Hinata boldly asking Daichi for quick breaks to check on their cats (to which Daichi would ask them if they wanted to run a few _dozen_ laps around the school), as well as Yachi innocently telling the boys that if they concentrated she would show them her own version of the game on her phone. Sugawara couldn’t help but smile at the thought of having to wait possibly hours for one new cat to appear and to waste time. Besides, Sugawara thought to himself, there was no way that he would be invested in a game like that so easily.

* * *

Sugawara caved after two hours of temptation, and by two hours it was the minute he got home and connected to his Wi-Fi. After following the tutorial and opening the app for the second time, he was greeted by a pure while cat playing with the red ball he was told to buy and practically squealed at how cute it was and took a multitude of screenshots. After half an hour of opening and closing the app, he decided to crack on with his homework, despite the fact that the game was calling to him as he wrote.

“Come on, Koushi, you will not jeopardise your studies for a godforsaken _cat_.” Sugawara scolded himself, focusing on his English Lit homework. He bit his lip as he made notes, making sure that he wasn’t rushing, and after two hours at the most he was finally finished. He leaned back in his seat and stretched as he yawned, grateful that that was the only homework that he was given. But then his eyes fell onto his phone, and he stared at it for a few moments before sighing in defeat and reaching for it.

“I suppose five minutes wouldn’t hurt,” Sugawara said to himself cheerily, as he opened the app and told himself that he was _not_ obsessed and that he had better things to do with his life than waste it on cats, “I mean, five minutes on this dumb game won’t hurt…”

 But of course, Sugawara knew that he was in too deep already, as he found himself going on and off his phone constantly, only to be greeted by three different kinds of cats, given twenty odd silver fishes and spent another hundred within the space of an hour. There was a gentle knock on his door, followed by the slow creaking of said door to reveal Sugawara’s mother in the doorway.

“Koushi, are you still on your phone? It’s time for dinner, dear.” Sugawara’s mother said gently. Sugawara frowned at her slightly, until he looked on his phone to check the time and saw to his horror that he had been emotionally invested in the cursed game for an extra hour on top of the hour that he had originally spent. He stuffed his phone under his pillow, quickly apologised to his mother and joined her in the living room downstairs and ate his dinner, the pair of them nattering about how their days had gone. But there were times when Sugawara found his hand fidgeting, his gaze sometimes lingering at the clock, because he had just bought some Ritzy Bitz for his cats and he wanted to get the one that looked like Daichi again-

“Koushi, are you alright? You’ve barely touched your food.” Sugawara’s mother pointed out, Sugawara’s plate left half finished. Sugawara smiled at her, his cheeks going slightly pink as he nodded and made to eat his food.

“I’m fine, mum, don’t you worry about me.” He replied politely, shovelling his food down his throat. His mother raised an eyebrow at him, a small smirk on her face as she looked intrigued at him.

“Am I assuming that you’re awaiting a text from a certain someone?” She cooed, to which Sugawara felt his entire face go red all of a sudden and finished the rest of his food whilst trying not to choke on it. His mother laughed at him as he rushed out of the living room and cleaned his dishes in the kitchen before bolting up to his room, because that was a different topic that he preferred his mother not bring up (as he closed his bedroom door behind him, he could have sworn he heard his mother say, “Give Daichi-kun my love, sweetie!”).

“God, she always does that to me…” Sugawara mumbled under his breath, changing into his pyjamas and climbing into his bed. He grabbed his phone from underneath his pillow, turned on the app again and mentally crossed his fingers in hope that the Daichi-Cat or at the very least the Snowy cat was back. But instead, Sugawara was greeted with a rather large cat next to his food bowl, its paw on its belly slowly and looking as though it was dozing off. Sugawara tilted his head at the cat, because he knew it wasn’t Snowy and it was most definitely not the Daichi-Cat. He tapped on the cat to open the profile:

_Tubbs – Personality: Finicky Feaster – Power Lv: 130 – Visits: 1 – Fluffy_

“This must be the Tubbs that Hinata was talking about during practise today. He doesn’t seem so bad.” Sugawara giggled, taking a screenshot and multiple photos for Tubbs’s album. Sugawara yawned loudly, and decided to call it a night there, plugging his phone in to charge overnight. He rested his head on the pillow, closing his eyes slowly to let himself drift off to sleep.

And then decided that five more minutes to check on Tubbs wouldn’t hurt him.

* * *

Sugawara hated himself more than anything: he hated himself more than he hated Maths and Science and the vice principal and everything impure in the world. But most of all, he hated _Neko Atsume_.

His head was rested on his desk, and it had been two weeks or so since he had downloaded the app onto his phone and found himself in the spiral of doom that Ennoshita warned them about. Sugawara had been up for most of the night, due to studying and cats and talking to Nishinoya about said cats and having to deal with Tubbs eating all of his freaking food and leaving him like six silver fishes which wasn’t necessarily fair seeing that Sugawara had left _Sashimi for the ungrateful swine_.

“Suga, are you alright?” Daichi asked, his voice laced with concern. Sugawara raised his hand sluggishly at him and waved him away impatiently.

“Mmhmmfr.” Sugawara replied meekly, burrowing his head into his arms onto the desk. Daichi chuckled, taking a seat on Sugawara’s desk.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then. What’s up?” Daichi asked, sounding a little bit more sincere the second time around. Sugawara kept his head in the arms but groaned as he held back a yawn.

“Daichi, don’t ever download that satanic cat app.” Sugawara grumbled. Daichi raised his eyebrows at him, as though surprised, but then he grinned at Sugawara teasingly (and Sugawara felt his stomach do backflips, but that was a different story).

“You _actually_ have that now? _Wow_.” Daichi said, sounding disappointed. Sugawara glanced up at him with a scowl on his face, narrowing his eyes at him.

“Shut up, Sawamura. It’s a life wrecker.”

“You sound like Asahi, he was complaining about how he couldn’t get any sleep because Noya was harassing him about his _tactics_.” Daichi laughed.

“This game destroys your _life_ , Daichi.” Sugawara whined, pulling his head up from his arms and resting his head in his hand. Daichi shook his head at him, his grin still on his face.

“It can’t be that life ruining, Suga. You just have a lack of willpower.” Daichi said in a teasing tone, taking his phone out of his pocket and started texting. Sugawara frowned at him stubbornly for a while, thinking of some way to convince Daichi that it wasn’t as easy as it seemed to just put the phone away. But then Sugawara smiled widely at Daichi, who glanced at Sugawara for a moment before narrowing his eyes at him suspiciously.

“I don’t like that expression on your face.” Daichi said bluntly. Sugawara chuckled lightly.

“Daichi…”

“No.” Daichi said, moving his phone away slightly.

“Can I borrow your phone?” Sugawara asked peevishly, reaching for Daichi’s phone slowly.

“NO.” Daichi replied sternly, holding his phone out of Sugawara’s reach. Sugawara giggled at him evilly, raising an eyebrow at him and a devious grin on his face.

“What, you scared of being proven wrong?” Sugawara asked. That was the deal breaker for Daichi. Daichi froze for a second, and Sugawara could tell that Daichi was most likely determining how much of his pride he could gamble. He leaned in close to Sugawara, his own peevish grin on his face.

“What’s it called again?” Daichi asked. Sugawara grinned. If he was going to suffer in cat hell, he wasn’t going to suffer alone.

* * *

Hinata was starting to hate Kenma for introducing him to the evil satanic game that was _Neko Atsume_ , but he was soon starting to hate himself for introducing it to his team.

He knew that the rest of the volleyball club had gotten the app, Kageyama being one of the last and the easiest to be frustrated about the app due to the fact that there was one cat that somehow reminded him of Oikawa and how it always left just one singular silver fish no matter what Kageyama did to impress it. Yamaguchi and Tsukishima weren’t as invested, but Yamaguchi had one informed Hinata once how Tsukishima’s face lit up ever so slightly when his favourite cat came to visit only to see it wither when he closed and open the app again.

Tanaka and Nishinoya were at loggerheads, somehow, both of them getting a cat that the other wanted and it being decided that it was a mutual rivalry of who could get the most cats. Ennoshita, Kinoshita and Narita were low key obsessed with the game, and Hinata was envious that the three of them were able to sneak towards their phones and quickly check on their collections and exchanging photos.

When Sugawara got the app, Hinata had heard that Sugawara fell for it just as badly as Hinata did, if not worse. Although he looked relatively normal like usual, Hinata could notice the shifty eye Sugawara would give to his bag next to Kiyoko and Yachi, before shaking his head and trying to focus on practise. Asahi was doomed the minute he told Nishinoya that he downloaded the app; the ace was plagued by both the libero and the game, with Nishinoya boasting about how he named all of his faint hearted cats after Asahi and showed off his albums and his hoard of gold fishes and silver fishes, with Asahi feeling relatively inferior.

But when Daichi got the app, Hinata knew he was a dead man walking.

Daichi didn’t get too attached at first, only going on his phone at least twice during practise to check on the cats. But as the days progressed his checks became more frequent, looking more irritated each time, muttering about how he couldn’t understand why he wasn’t getting as many cats as everyone else and how he wanted to just find Tubbs already. It was when Hinata accidentally spiked the ball too hard at the end of practise, and as he watched in horror the ball knocking Daichi’s phone out of his hand onto the concrete steps. Sugawara and Asahi looked terrified as Daichi’s mouth fell open slowly.

“Oh shit I’m so sorry about that I swear I’ll buy you a new phone-!” Hinata wailed, rushing to Daichi and bowing lowly at him.

“Tubbs.” Daichi said in a low voice.

“… Huh?”

“Oh no.” Kiyoko sighed.

“Hinata-kun, you need to run.” Asahi said, as he made towards Daichi as if to calm him down.

“I-I-?” Hinata said, confused. But he caught the murderous expression on Daichi’s face, his eyes fell to Daichi’s broken phone as it flickered, and saw in the corner the small but obvious fat white cat. The clogs in his head started to turn, and he felt his insides churn uncomfortably.

Hinata didn’t run from the Karasuno gym.

He sprinted.

* * *

**From: Shouyou**

KENMA PLS HELP ME

-

**From: Kenma**

You’re on your own

-

**From: Shouyou**

KENMA U DON’T UNDERSTAND DAICHI IS SO MAD I BROKE HIS PHONE WHILST HE WAS ON THE CAT GAME AND HE LOST TUBBS AND HE IS SO MAD

-

**From: Kenma**

Wow

-

**From: Shouyou**

KENMA PLS I NEED YOU

-

**From: Kenma**

I send you my prayers…

-

**From: Shouyou**

(ノ´ロ`)ノ

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hinata was forced to clean the gym for two weeks in the morning and Daichi never got to see Tubbs again.


End file.
